Here's one that is for every wine household. The New Wine Lover's Companion. It is comprehensive definitions and explanations for nearly 4,000 wine related terms. It is an education in itself and a wonderful book if you have a question about various wines, wine terms, locations, facts, descriptions wine making techniques and much more. It covers wines of the world, USA, France, Germany, Argentina, Africa and a host of other countries. The format of the entire book is A to Z lookup. It''s nice because if a question comes up you can use it as a wine reference. The website to order one is www.barronseduc.com once there enter the word wine in thier searchbox and you can see it. The authors are Ron and Sharon Herbst. Good luck in the starting of your wine education, I'm positive this book will be a value to you for years to come.

Lefty and I agree on that book as a nice basic reference for just about anything. Not sure what's been added in the new edition (tannat was missing in the last one, and picpoule had a reference that led nowhere), but it's pretty complete and accurate and the writing is actually lively. Not much opinion, just lots of info about regions, varietals, terms, etc.

For a great overall look at wines, wine making and wines countries/regions of the world (to include the foods that go with each region), try The WIne Bible by Karen MacNeil. At 900+ pages, it is fairly detailed (albeit slightly dated), but also a funny and entertaining read. She covers the individual rtegions within France, Germany and Italy in a very detailed fashion, as well as a fairly good summary of the other countries as well, to include Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. (of course), and a few lesser known wine-producing regions such as Hungary (or was it Romania?). Lots of fun, and easy on the wallet as well!

You can always try the magazine I write for on occations...The Wine Enthusiast...Its very informative on where the next best will be...How to pair your wine...along with ratings of wine from Arbor Mist to Santiago De Montefalco (thats what I do)...its great for anyone really... you can download it, here:

www.downmagaz.com search The Wine Enthusiast and click on one of the downloading links. Hope you enjoy! -Krys

If you are looking for wine basics I would suggest Kevin Zraly's book. Windows on the World: Wine Course . It does a good job of covering the basics on the main regions and gives you some tasting lessons as well.